Norway’s Håkon Wium Lie, CTO of internet browser Opera’s parent company and a creator of the World Wide Web, offers some optimistic and reassuring thoughts about the Internet, new challengers to LinkedIn, and the convergence of politics and IT.

According to a new survey commissioned by PBS, the country is pretty much split half-and-half about whether technology is making people smarter or dumber, as well as just about the same split about whether the benefits of technology are worth the risks that accompany it.

We think you know where 7CTOs comes down on this. We want to help make better people for a better world, create leaders who are as gifted in their humanity as they are in their technical prowess. The economy, and too many people, are in a bubble. It’s time to fix it.

7CTOs is based in San Diego, but we aspire for national reach and inspiration, so we don’t want to focus too much on our specific SoCal region of the country. That said, there was an interesting and thoughtful article in Sunday’s San Diego Union-Tribune that is relevant not just for America’s (self-proclaimed) Finest City, but all American cities.